§ Sir Eric, the message of this Budget is clear and unambiguous.
§ The Government will use all the means at its disposal to ensure that during the next five years the longstanding balance of payments problem will be finally overcome. To do this we are ready to innovate and break new ground in our fiscal policies. We shall not resort to the deadend of purely restrictive and protective policies.
§ We are at the beginning of a Parliament and whenever a new Parliament is elected a compact is sealed between the people and the House of Commons. One of the unwritten clauses of that compact is that the House of Commons owe the people the truth. So let me be utterly clear.
§ I have no doubt that during the next five years Britain can secure the Triple Objective of a strong pound, full employment and a steadily growing industrial strength. But there is a limit to what Budgets and fiscal policies can do to achieve the Objective. The battle for success will be won or lost in the factories, workshops and board rooms of this country.
§ The greatest danger of defeat is that those concerned with increasing output and those concerned with relating productivity to prices and incomes will pay 1461 lip-service to these policies and then do nothing about them. We will get the worst of all worlds if this happens. Many cynics believe that it will continue. But the Government pins its faith to the willingness and understanding of the British people to make the policy of productivity, prices and incomes succeed and so secure our Triple Objective.